Truth about "The Pension Crisis".

[Snotcicles]

[elleng]

1. Thanks.

As I've thought, the 'crisis' is due to 'funders' like corps and states FAILING to do their job. Fortunately I'm in the Federal Employees plan.

[1939]

9. While the Federal government has been paying their pension obligations

It always made me cringe wen federal employees talked about their massive "trust fund". I would tell them that the only thing in their trust found was some accounting magic and that the money they had put away and the matching government contribution had long since been spent. Their retirement, when they received it, was coming out of general revenues and could be changed, altered, increased, or decreased at the will of Congress.

[dmr]

2. Thank you for posting this.

I always like to hear Johnston speak as he explains economics with great clarity.

A suggestion: you ought to cross post this in the Video forum for better exposure. Posts like this tend to be bypassed & get lost in the Discussion forum. Since there's a greater life span in Videos more people will get to see it.

[Snotcicles]

3. Thank you for that suggestion. nt

[doc03]

4. Thanks for posting. Another thing the government agencies that are

supposed to be regulating these plans are not doing their job to protect employees. The let the companies underfund the plans then when they fail the pensions are dumped on the taxpayers.

[JDPriestly]

5. K&R. Excellent discussion.

[SheilaT]

6. Thank you. David Cay Johnston is a national treasure.

I am one of those whose pension (defined benefit) is literally a third of what it should be, thanks to the company I worked for declaring bankruptcy more than once and dumping our pensions on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. I'm lucky in that I never thought my pension from this company would amount to much, since I worked for them (for ten years) a very long time ago, but those who worked their entire lives there and then were massively screwed over -- well there are no words to adequately describe the injustice.

[JDPriestly]

7. Thanks for making this problem human. It's really a terrible problem.

Imagine being in your late nineties, having been raised in a world without computers and having to deal with investing your personal pension fund money. Horrors!

My mother was in a similar predicament. She was of sound mind, had no problem managing her affairs, but investments??? Her prescription orders were very difficult for her to manage. She did a good job in paying her bills and taking care of her finances, but it was really not fair to expect her to do what she had to do. Most people her age would not have managed.

We need to keep Social Security and have defined benefit plans paid by employers and employees.

[SheilaT]

8. Yep. I'm only in my late 60's,

and I have a financial person who handles stuff for me. I couldn't begin to do it on my own.

[LongTomH]

10. K&R This needs more attention!

I keep sweating my company's pension plan.